Creation and Meaning-Making
When I tell people that I’m interested in creation and am planning a class that will consider creation in the Old Testament, they immediately assume that I’m going to become a combatant in the ongoing science versus evolution controversy.
I’m not.
Ever since higher criticism jumped over the Atlantic in the late 19th century, American Christians have been in a sometimes bitter battle over whether Christian faith needs to adjust itself around scientific discoveries or whether the Scriptures and church doctrine needs always to trump science.
One might think that by now the science vs religion question is a settled issue. It’s not. About a third of Americans don’t believe in evolution. They believe that humans came into being by a divine hand in precisely the form we have now.
Ken Ham, the Australian educator turned apologist for creationism, founder of the Answers in Genesis Association in Petersburg Kentucky, and inspiration for the nearby Ark Encounter theme park, is a colorful and influential voice that proves that creationism is far from obsolete in America.
I’m not interested in this controversy which is the contemporary expression of the Fundamentalist-Modernist debate. I am concerned about this argument’s ability to distract from a much more important concern, namely what the Bible says about creation.
There’s another distraction that is more subtle. It’s what I’ll call the seduction of beauty. Everyone has had an emotional experience when looking at a mountain range, sunset, or waterfall and feeling that we have a loving and brilliant God to thank for creating it. We see this in the Bible:
Says the 19th Psalm:
The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Who has not had this experience? But let me be obnoxiously precise for a moment. The beauty of the heavens and all of nature for that matter, work to tell of the existence of God. Maybe a majestic forest hints at the intelligence and goodness of God. My experience of beholding a beautiful sunset is to feel, “Yup, there sure is a wonderful God behind all of this.”
But this sentiment, which I experience frequently, is not what fascinates me about creation.
I’m interested in what the Old Testament creation texts, plus the sprinkling of creation ideas that thread through both testaments, are teaching about the character and destiny of what God created.
The What and Why of Creation
The newspaper reporter asks of a situation: “Who, what, where, when, why, and how.” Applied to the idea of Creation, science sheds light on the how and maybe when. The splendor of the sunset offers a lyrical answer to the question of who. And the text of the Bible cooly addresses the why. Additionally, the creation stories give spiritual information on who, what, where, when, and how.
The Creation Myth in the Ancient World
Ancient peoples told and retold creation myths. At the time when the Babylonian Empire emerged about 1200 b.c.e., a new story of origins circulated. It told of a new god, Marduk, who superceded the ancient deities and provided legitimation for Nebuchadnezzar I, liberation from the new civilization’s overlord, the Kassite Dynasty.
This story or myth provided a magnificent origin for Babylon and its rulers, which would quash impulses among its peoples to restore the old regime, launch a new one, or bring a charge of illegitimacy.
Origin myths aren’t simply interested in dredging up information artifacts from the past. Creation myths carry messages about a society’s goodness and truthfulness, its reason for existence and future trajectory, its laws, who is an insider and who is the outsider or enemy and so on. The myths of origin give societies a sense of their special task with respect to neighboring societies. Creation myths legitimate the leaders’ authority. They make clear who the outsiders and enemies are.
To put it cynically, Creation myths give a society a feeling of gravitas. The originating stories prevent people from seeing that Larry just managed to conquer the previous leader. Larry thinks that he wants to preside over a powerful empire, but he doesn’t want to project that he’s a rooky at being a King and that he’s making everything up as he goes along. So there emerges a founding myth that assures everyone that their society is firmly anchored in the approval of the god’s and has been in the making since the beginning.
“Meaning-Making”
The biblical texts which recount the world’s coming into being also serve this signifying function. As Bernhard Anderson puts it, they are “meaning-making.” Creation beckons us not to look back, but to look around. Through the eyes of creation stories we begin to see value, goodness, and purposefulness that adds to what science can teach about the intricacy and intelligence of the world’s functioning.
Even an off-the-cuff recall of Genesis’ first two chapters reminds us of these words’ ability to make meaning. Try, for example, to recall some of the activities in Genesis’ first two chapters. Most people will remember that the Creator pronounces his finished work to be “good.” That’s orienting. That gives me a lens through which to look at the world around me. On a grumpy day I might think that certain people or places are so degenerate that they deserve to be abandoned. My better self would look a bad situation, say a toxic waste dump, and recall, God made this and declared it good. Where is the good? How does God feel about it now. Was this intended to be this way? What needs to be done now?
Letting the simple idea of the world’s goodness cast a light on what I see around is a simple and obvious way that creation can become contemporary and influence attitudes.
Many other inferences about the world’s character and destiny that are found in the biblical creation stories. Again, just thinking about what we can remember about Genesis even without opening a Bible and reading carefully supports the importance or creation as meaning-making.
There’s the creation of humans. The point isn’t that the creation of humans provides a proof text in an argument with scientists who study natural selection. The point is that the Creator gives his human creation an assignment to share in the creative work by management of the fresh new world.
My plea is that we read the text.
Instead of assuming that the ancient rabbis who compiled creation stories in order to “own” smarty-pants intellectuals who seem to be attacking God, we need to ask of Genesis what its authors were trying to say about the world’s character. And the character of God.
As I write this, millions of Americans are donning N-95 masks to avoid breathing thick smoke from burning forests in Canada. The heavens on America’s east coast are not declaring God’s glory today and the sky is not proclaiming the Creator’s handiwork.
One of the things we learn in the Creation materials that thread through the Bible is that the created order including the animals communicate God’s word to humanity. The floods clap their hands and the mountains sing their praises (Ps 98); the stones will cry out (Lk 19.40). Thorns and thistles testify against human rebellion. (Gen 3.17ff)
The world is proclaiming the Creator’s truth that Washington and most Americans won’t dare even to think.
This essay has mentioned three ways that creation as it is presented in the Bible give meaning. We’ve touched on the ongoing goodness of all that is, the assignment for humanity to assist God in caring for creation, and the role of the natural world to share with the prophets and scripture in communicating what God has to say to the world.
There are many more ways that the Creation texts yield insights and imperatives to those who will simply open their Bibles and read what is there.
